Alberta's Top Employers (2025) Magazine - Flipbook - Page 48
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ALBERTA’S TOP EMPLOYERS (2025)
Integrated Sustainability offers diverse experiences
W
hen Stuart Torr
founded Integrated
Sustainability
Consultants Ltd. in
2010, the new company’s president
and CEO knew what he wanted.
It was to bring engineering and
science professionals together
in a single organization to create
sustainable water management
and fully realize the potential in
holistic systems thinking.
“Recycling water from industrial
applications to irrigate crops,
or sharing waste heat to power
lithium recycling,” Torr says, “are
possibilities when we connect the
dots.” Thinking that way, he adds,
needs a flow of ideas, not just
between disciplines but generations. “Integrated Sustainability
has stressed mentorship from the
start.”
The company, which now numbers 140 employees and associates,
has an impressive array of experts.
“We brought together great specialists in climate, carbon, water
treatment, and groundwater,” says
Torr, “and that has given us the
technology and knowledge to take
process-affected water, clean it up,
and safely discharge it back into
the environment.”
It has also made for a welcoming
and mentorship-rich workplace
culture, according to junior
hydrologist Ryan Parisien, who
joined in 2021 after a university
co-op stint. Parisien knew Calgarybased Integrated Sustainability
even before his co-op experience.
“I used to DJ their Christmas
parties, so I knew the people and
the really interesting work they
were doing.”
For all the flexible work options,
frequent performance reviews and
robust health benefits, it was the
diverse experience and training
on offer that has most appealed to
Parisien. “Even right out of school,
they had me on so many different
projects, doing different things,”
he says.
“Then, two years ago when our
geomatics guy departed, leaving
the drones and survey equipment,
I said I was interested,” Parisien
adds. “It wasn’t anything I’d
studied in university, but the
company said sure, give it a try,
and provided all the guidance I
needed. Now, I lead our geomatics
data collection, where we’ve
developed our own in-house
drone boats. I don’t think I would
ever have learned what I have
about geomatics without them just
handing over the keys.”
The same mindset about
collaboration and learning led
Integrated Sustainability and the
Canadian Society for Evolving
Energy to jointly establish the
energy ambassador mentorship
program – and to Parisien eagerly
becoming an ambassador. “Our
training included specialists discussing all aspects of the energy
transition – nuclear energy really
interested me – and I met a lot
of young professionals as well as
older mentors,” Parisien says. “It’s
been great to network with these
high-level people.”
It’s still difficult for young
people to see a path to a
career in the transition
from fossil-fuel energy. The
energy ambassadorships
let us aggregate our
experiences and dispel
confusion.
— Stuart Torr
President and CEO
Employees at Integrated Sustainability are empowered to pursue the career path that calls most strongly to
them within the organization.
For Torr, “it has been rewarding
to figure out what this group of
young people needs.” There is
uncertainty in the public mind
and even among experts, he says,
as to what is sustainable and what
is not, how far and how fast the
world can move to decarbonization via renewable energy. “So,
it’s still difficult for young people
to see a path to a career in the
transition from fossil fuel energy.
The energy ambassadorships let
